


A Pair of Dummies

by naturalnik95



Category: Captain America (Movies), Captain America - All Media Types, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Bucky Barnes - Freeform, Captain America - Freeform, Cussing, F/M, Oblivious Steve, Winter Soldier - Freeform, best friend bucky, dumbass steve, steve rogers - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-19
Updated: 2020-02-19
Packaged: 2021-02-28 03:26:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,336
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22807048
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/naturalnik95/pseuds/naturalnik95
Summary: “I was wondering if I could request a fic where you have eyes for Steve and Bucky tells you to go flirt with him, but Steve’s being an oblivious little butt and doesn’t get what you’re doing. So later you just tell him that you like him.”
Relationships: Steve Rogers/Original Character(s), Steve Rogers/Original Female Character(s), Steve Rogers/Reader
Comments: 2
Kudos: 66





	A Pair of Dummies

It was three in the afternoon and the only sounds in the gym was the sound of Steve’s weights slamming together after each rep and Bucky shouting commands as he paced around you on the mat. However, your gaze was focused on Steve’s back muscles tensing each time he pulled the weights back and the tiny little grunt he would make.

“Hello?! Anyone in there?” Bucky’s punching mitt slapped against the side of your head, knocking you sideways. 

“Ow, what the hell, Barnes?” You snapped as you tried to shove the super-soldier but he didn’t move an inch. 

He chuckled smugly at your failed attempt, “maybe if you’d been paying attention to me instead of Steve’s ass, then I wouldn’t have hit you.” 

Your mouth gaped open and closed like a fish, trying to think of some comeback. “I-I wasn’t- you don’t- just shut up and put your hands back up, buddy boy.” You wiped off a bead of sweat with the back of your hands and got back into the stance. 

Bucky worked around you in a circle while you worked through the combo he’d showed you. You shot your leg out and kicked against the mitt roughly and he shook his hand. 

“Okay, that one actually had a little bite to it, kid. Ya know, you don’t have to be so defensive about crushing on a certain Avenger.” 

You swung your fist hard toward Bucky’s head but he ducked just in time. “I have no clue what you’re talking about.” Your breath was starting to get heavier as he moved quicker. 

“Hey, I totally get it. He is literally America’s wet dream. The perfect man. He embodies everything about the apple pie and the white picket fence.” 

Annoyance was bubbling up in your stomach so you hit a two punch combo, hitting the mitt with a loud smack. “Barnes, you are so insufferable.” 

“There’s no need to be so elusive. I’m just saying, I think I saw a little bit of drool coming out of the side of your mouth.” He pointed to the corner of his mouth for a moment, giving you the very opening you needed. With lightning reflexes, you threw your fist out and were centimeters away from connecting with his jaw when Bucky grabbed your hand and flung you onto the mat. 

A little puff of air escaped your lungs as your back connected, Bucky’s body sitting on top of you, holding your arms pinned back. Dropping your head, you growled with frustration. Both of you were drenched in sweat and it was making your back stick to the mat uncomfortably. 

“You didn’t really think I’d let you get me, didcha?” He mocked. 

“I’ll admit, I thought I might have a small chance.” 

Bucky rolled off you and held his hand out, hefting you off the mat in one swift motion. Dropping a heavy hand on your shoulder, he steered you toward the locker rooms. Steve was still in his own world, ignoring the two of you leaving the area. 

Rounding the corner out of his sight, Bucky spun you around and rested his hands on your shoulders. 

“Be honest, kid, you into Steve?”

Your eyes widened comically as Bucky stooped down to your level, making extremely pointed eye contact with you. An unease settled in you and you shifted your eyes down to look at your sneakers.

This wasn’t really the type of thing you wanted to talk to your friends about, let alone his very best friend. You had cleverly avoided discussing your embarrassing crush on Steve Rogers for two years, opting for admiring him from afar.

“Buck-”

“I’m not judging you, I just want to know if I’m wrong because if I am, I’ll shut up right now. But I’m telling you right now, I think you’d be good for him.” 

“Uh,” wait, did you hear that right? “Wait, what?” 

“Steve is a dummy, always has been and getting the serum didn’t help him any. I see him perk up when you’re around, though. I think you’d be a good fit with him. You’re ballsy, intelligent, albeit a smart ass, and you don’t push…that much” 

When Steve had first started helping Bucky reintegrate into modern society, you had casually taken him under your wing. First it had started with tiny things like getting him to participate in small talk, then it was going out in public so he could realize that civilians didn’t worry about him. Gradually, you started hanging out all the time. Bucky quickly became one of your best friends at the compound. 

It was clear that he still struggled with PTSD from his time as the Winter Soldier. You never acted like it was something he should be over already and you tried not to push him into talking about it for the most part. 

The longer your friendship went on, you assumed that Steve would hang out with the both of you more, but he always kept his distance. He’d have small conversations with you, but more often than not, he wouldn’t move any further than ‘how’s the weather’ or ‘Tony called a meeting’. 

Hesitantly, you shrugged Bucky’s hand off and took a step back. “But…Steve doesn’t even like me. Why would I be into him?” 

“What the hell are you talking about, you doo-doo bird?” 

Offended at the implication, you scowled. “I mean, Steve doesn’t even talk to me for longer than five minutes, so why would I be crushing on him, ass-hat?” 

“Boy, you two are dumber than I thought.” Bucky mumbled to himself. 

“Excuse me?” You squint your eyes and took a menacing step toward him. 

He looked back at you and held his hands up, stopping you in your tracks. “Calm down, killer. What I meant is, you are both missing the obvious. Steve is just too stubborn so he thinks he doesn’t deserve happiness, which comes in the form of you. And you, well I’m not sure why you haven’t pursued him, but I just don’t think you’d be staring at him as much as you do if you didn’t like him.” 

Your shoulders sagged in defeat. Why, oh why, did you have to be best friends with a sniper? Of course he saw right through you from a mile away. 

“He doesn’t like me, Buck. How am I supposed to get anywhere with him if he won’t talk to me about anything but the weather or how many cookies Thor ate last time he was on Earth.” 

“You’ve got to flirt with him, knucklehead.” Bucky smacked your shoulder. “He’s not gonna get the hint unless you actually act like you’re into him. Ya know, maybe ask him out to a meal or something. And talking about Thor isn’t gonna help the situation so cut that shit out right now.” 

“But-”

“No buts, just go out there and flirt with him like the woman I know, love, and wish would get a life.” Then he was shoving you back towards the weight room with a huge shit-eating grin on, ignoring your shouts of offense. Hesitating for a moment, you glanced back to see Bucky shoo-ing you forward. 

Letting out a huge sigh, you walked around the corner and slammed right into a large wall of muscle. Steve’s hands shot out and steadied you, the contact making your skin break out in goosebumps. He’d put his shirt back on and the blue was making his bright eyes even more hypnotizing than normal. 

“Whoa there, sorry doll, I didn’t see you there.” Steve chuckled bashfully. “I thought you and Buck left a while ago.” 

“We did. But we didn’t really, we were just talking. I-I came back to talk to you, actually.” It felt like you were sweating more than you had been during your workout. His hand was still on your arm and you couldn’t focus on anything but that sensation. 

There was no reason for you to be so irrational right now, he’s just a man. Just a man who had saved the country and the entire world numerous times and was America’s Adonis. A man who also just happened to always have the most flawless hair that you always wanted to run your fingers through. Lord almighty. 

“What did you want to talk about?” 

“Ope, um,” crap, you hadn’t thought that far ahead. Here goes nothing, “I…just wanted to tell you that you looked really great during your workout today.” 

He gave you a puzzled look, “Oh thanks, yeah I was really burning steel in there.” 

“I could totally tell.” You reached forward and felt his bicep, “it looks like it’s really paying off for you.” 

Steve’s gaze fell to your hand on his arm before giving you a small smile and you promptly let go again. “I think that might be more thanks to the serum than the workout.” He teased. 

You chewed on your bottom lip, wracking your brain for what to say next. You weren’t good at flirting, it’s why you never did it in the first place. Bucky said to ask him out for lunch. “I guess you’re probably right about that. Well, I bet you worked up a huge appetite after that, huh? All that hard work.” 

“For sure, I could eat a buffet out of business after a workout.” 

Here was your chance. 

“Would you want to-” 

“But I’ve got a meeting with Tony in like twenty minutes so I’ve got to get a move on.” Steve kept talking and you grimaced slightly. “Did you have anything else you wanted to talk about?” He tilted his head, a little half smile on his lips. You wanted to leap forward and press your lips to his but that probably wouldn’t go over well, so instead you just shook your head confidently. 

“Nope. I’m all good. Enjoy your meeting with Tony!” You called in a sing-song voice as he made his way to the door. He rolled his eyes at the mention of Tony and waved back at you before letting the door swing shut. 

The air deflated out of you and you fell back onto the wall behind you, sinking to the floor and curling your knees up to your chest. If someone were to look up “embarrassing” in the dictionary, that interaction would be found. And you still hadn’t even made it past five minutes. 

“Oof, that was painful.” 

You lifted your gaze to find Bucky leaning on his shoulder above you, still in his workout clothes. Great, he’d heard the whole thing too. 

“Why did you make me do that, you ass-hat?” You yanked on his leg hair harshly, making him jump further away from you. “I’m not good at flirting!” 

“Wait, is that what you call flirting?” He exclaimed baffled. 

You scowled up at him, “I’m not friends with you anymore.” Dropping your head back against the wall, you closed your eyes in hopes of going to your happy place - without Bucky around. 

“It wasn’t that bad, kid, it just wasn’t much of anything. You started off strong but…” He crouched down so he was at eye level with you.

“But nothing. I’m an embarrassment and I will never be talking to Steve ever again.”

“No, no, no, stop being ridiculous. You just have to…flirt better. Maybe you could ask Tasha if she’d help you.” 

You flung out your hand and pushed Bucky hard in the chest, making him tip backwards onto his butt. “Not happening, Barnes. I’m not asking the Black Widow,” you emphasized, “for help flirting with Captain America. You can just forget this ever happened and I will resume being friends with you in one to two weeks - you will be notified.” 

Bucky was chortling and yelling at you to stop, but you’d already stood up and were booking it to the hallway, letting the door slam loudly on the way. 

~~~ 

Life had been perfectly fine when you were admiring Steve Rogers from afar. You were content with pining for him but knowing that nothing would ever happen, resigned to the fact that you would find a good man someday and that would be the end of it. 

What you hadn’t expected was Bucky butting his nose into your business and telling you that you’d be great with Steve. Or the fact that you couldn’t get the feeling of his hand lingering on your skin or his rippling bicep out of your head. 

It had been a full week and you were living in a continuous loop of ocean blue eyes and trying to put the lid back on the feelings you’d successfully ignored for years. 

You hadn’t talked to Bucky since you’d walked out of the gym, regardless of how many times he’d tried to trick you into speaking to him. And now you were being called for a meeting where Bucky and Steve would both be in the same room as you.

The sound of Steve Roger’s laugh made you look up instantly from the snack table and your stomach flipped at the sound. He was talking animatedly with Wanda, one hand flailing around in the air while the other hand was gripped tight to a stack of paperwork.

“You should talk to him, ya know.” Bucky’s voice was right in your ear and you elbowed him in response before walking to your seat across the room from him. You didn’t want to think that Bucky might be right so you’d rather take him out of the equation all together. 

From his chair near the front, Steve glanced over and raised his lips in a timid smile at you. It felt like you could melt into a puddle of goo right there in your chair. You returned his smile cheerfully just as you felt a small nudge on your ribs. You swiveled your chair around to see Wanda grinning like the Cheshire cat.

“What?” You asked innocently. 

“I think you know what.” She giggled. “And Barnes is not wrong, you should ask him out.” 

“Hey! You promised you wouldn’t look in my head anymore.” You pouted and turned back to the front room where Bruce had just started talking about the numbers from the previous quarter - how many civilians had been saved, how much structural damage had been done, ways to stop wasting so much on utilities.

The meeting could have been only fifteen minutes but it seemed like it’d been two hours. The entire time, your mind had been on one thing, well one person. This was getting out of hand, you couldn’t even focus on a simple meeting now.

Before you knew it, Bruce was dismissing the team and everyone was stampeding to the doors. Steve, on the other hand, was casually gathering his paperwork back up with his back to you. It was just you and him alone now in the conference room. 

Sheepishly, you shuffled your shoe against the floor, praying for any smidgen of bravery to come. Steve peeked over his shoulder, surprised to see you still hanging around. 

“Hey, you. Figured you’d be headed down for lunch, I heard Tony ordered in sushi from that fancy-pants place everyone loves.” 

You shrugged loosely, “eh, thought I might stick around here for a little bit. I’m not really hungry anyways.” 

“Oh yeah?” He leaned against the table and folded his arms across his chest with a look of concern on his face. “Is everything alright? I noticed you and Bucky haven’t been hanging out much lately.” 

“Yeah, we haven’t… It’s kind of because of you…” 

It was dead silent as you both exchanged looks. 

“Me?” He asked, stunned.

Gradually, you moved to stand side-by-side with him. Maybe if he wasn’t looking directly at you, rejection would be easier. “Do you remember the day in the gym last week?” He nodded once. “The reason that I came in to talk to you was because… well, Bucky told me that I needed to flirt with you if I wanted you to realize that I liked you. But then I’m shit at flirting, and you didn’t really seem to notice or care, so I got mad at him for giving me the idea in the first place.” 

“Wait- Did you say you like me?” 

You glimpsed over at him and slowly nodded. Steve angled his body so he could see you better and you were just waiting for the moment where he starts laughing and mocking you for ever thinking he could want you. But it hadn’t happened yet. 

“You were flirting with me?” His face was scrunched up like he was trying to think back on the whole interaction. 

“Well I was trying to flirt with you. I figured you thought I’d had an aneurysm or something.” You joked, trying to lift the mood of the room but he didn’t crack a smile.

“I didn’t even realize…” Like lightning, he stood up straight and faced you, his blue eyes focused only on your face. “I’m sorry, doll, I didn’t even realize.” 

“Steve, you don’t have to be sorry. I know you don’t feel that way about me, and I was just mad at Barnes for letting me get my hopes up.” 

He lifted his hand and cupped your face delicately, his touch making your heart rate skyrocket. “Who said I don’t have feelings for you?” 

“U-um yo-you never, well you never wa-want to talk to, ya know, me…” You stammered out clumsily. 

“I thought you liked Bucky, doll.” He said without hesitation. “You guys are always spending time together and I didn’t want to get in the way of either of your happiness.” 

“Are you serious?” You couldn’t help the loud laugh that passed your lips. “I wanted to be friends with Bucky in the first place because you thought he was worth being friends with… and I thought you might hang out with us.” 

Steve shut his eyes and let his head fall forward, his forehead bumping against yours softly from how close he was to you. His hand was still against your cheek and you allowed yourself to relax into his touch more. 

Finally, he lifted his head, “so last week when you asked if I was hungry, that’s because you were-”

“Trying to ask you out, yes.” 

“Boy am I dumb.” 

You snorted at that, “that’s the same thing Bucky said.” 

Steve let out a breathy laugh before moving a bit closer to you. “I hope I haven’t lost the chance to take you up on that offer.” 

The smell of his minty breath fanned in your face causing your mind to go blank and the only thing you could do was smile up at him like an idiot. As if your body was moving on its own, you shifted closer and his arm wrapped around your waist as if he’d done it a million times. 

At the same time you both leaned together and connected your lips in an innocent kiss. The entire world stopped turning at that moment. It was so soft and pure as he held you tightly against his body, a good thing because your knees had buckled at the contact. Draping a hand over his shoulder, you twisted your fingers into his hair, letting your other hand curl up on his muscular chest. 

After the most blissful moment of your life, Steve pulled back and was beaming. This beautiful man had just kissed you and was happy about it. Damn, life couldn’t get any better. 

“Would you allow me to take you out to lunch, doll?” He asked, his voice a little husky. 

“Absolutely, Captain. Lead the way.” You said, laughing when he blushed from you using his title. 

Setting you back down firmly on the floor, he intertwined his fingers with yours and led you out to the elevator. The whole time, you were so enamored with Steve that you barely noticed Bucky waiting at the end of the hall with the most arrogant, smug look on his face.


End file.
